


Huntersong

by glaciya



Category: Green Creek Series - T.J. Klune
Genre: (eventually) - Freeform, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Heartsong Spoilers, Humor, Hunter!Robbie au, M/M, Pre-Relationship, because this is set during ravensong, minor though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 10:35:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21269642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glaciya/pseuds/glaciya
Summary: When Elijah tells him the hunters are going after the Bennetts, Robbie is eager to go along. Everything he's learned about wolves during his twenty years in Elijah's care has painted them as violent, man-eating monsters. When he actually meets the Bennetts however, they prove themselves to be anything but.





	Huntersong

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all <3 This au came about because I wanted to explore what might have happened if Robbie had been taken in by the hunters as a child. It was originally going to have about 4 or 5 chapters set during Ravensong but looking back I’ve decided I’m happy leaving this as just an alternate first meeting for Kelbie. If anyone likes this idea and wants to continue it please feel free!

_ Quiet as a mouse. _

Robbie Fontaine was six years old when he sat inside the hollowed out tree stump that his mother hid him in, chanting her instructions over and over in his head. He didn’t know how long he sat there, listening to the sounds of fighting all around him. He heard shouts, screams of strange men, and the howls of the wolves he loved for the longest time. Then, silence. 

Despite the calm, Robbie didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. He clutched his backpack against his stomach, pushed his mom’s glasses up his nose, and kept quiet as a mouse. His mother said so. 

Until-

“Robbie where are you son? Come out, come out, come out.”

“Don’t you recognize me?” it asked, and Robbie did. 

Close now, it said, “Robbie, please. I’m your daddy.”

Robbie whimpered. It was just a tiny thing. It escaped his throat and tumbled past his lips before Robbie could stop it. It changed everything.

His father’s face appeared at the entrance to the hollow moments later. There was a smug smile on his face, dangerous steel behind his eyes as he reached in and plucked Robbie from his hiding spot. His father’s grip was tight and unrelenting, Robbie kept his own grip on his backpack just as tight while his father lifted him in his arms. 

He found himself surrounded by strange men and women wearing guns and kevlar vests. Some of them were injured, one man had claw marks in his vest and another woman was hissing as she poured alcohol over teeth marks in her shin. Most of them were looking at Robbie with an expression on their face that made him want to escape back into the hollow of the tree.

“Quiet as a mouse,” Robbie whispered to himself. 

His daddy cocked his head. “A mouse, huh?” He shifted Robbie on his hip, one arm around Robbie’s waist to hold his weight and the other pressed up against Robbie’s back, his fingers pinching the skin behind Robbie’s neck. 

“Mom said so,” Robbie muttered. His father’s nails were digging into him painfully, but when Robbie tried to shift away they only scraped further into his skin. 

“Of course she would,” his father said, the tone of his voice was dark, nasty. “Let me tell you something, Robbie. Mice are not quiet, not when they’ve been caught. They squeal and scream when they know they’re about to die because there’s nothing else they can do. They are weak. They are prey.” His dad’s smile never left his face. “Your mother was a mouse, Robbie. That’s why I killed her.”

Robbie began to cry. 

“You’re a mouse too, you know. You squeaked for me so I could find you. Do you want to stay a mouse forever, Robbie?” The hand on the back of his neck slid up into his hair, yanking on it and nearly knocking his mom’s glasses off his face. “Do you want to be prey, like your mother was?” 

He didn’t know what his father was asking, but he knew what the answer he wanted was. Robbie shook his head. 

“That’s good, son. I always knew you were a smart boy. You have some of me in you after all.” The grip on his hair gentled. “I’ll teach you to become a predator as I am, and together we can wipe out all the mice scurrying around in places they don’t belong.”

Robbie’s father made sure to show Robbie his mother’s corpse as they made their way out of the forest. There was blood pooled on the ground all around her. Flies already buzzing around her head. Robbie screamed at the sight of her and didn’t stop screaming until one of the other men+ marched up and shoved a rough, wadded up cloth in his mouth. 

A woman was waiting for them when they reached the place that Robbie and his mother made a home in during the past few months. All that remained of it now was dying flames and ash. The woman was crouched, facing the flames. There was a mound at her feet, a large dark shape that Robbie couldn’t make out until his father carried him close enough that he could see every horrifying detail. 

It was his Alpha. Dead like his mother, with half her pelt skinned and the woman working steadily on the other half. Robbie whined into the gag. 

“Meredith-” 

“Elijah.” 

His father sighed. “Elijah. It’s finished. They’re all dead.” 

The woman- Elijah- took the time to wipe the blood of the Alpha in the grass in front of her before she rose and faced them. If Robbie had met her under any other circumstances, he might have thought she was pretty. She had pale skin, black hair cut short to frame her face, and deep green eyes, one of which had a wicked scar across it. 

She wasn’t very imposing at first glance, standing several inches shorter than Robbie’s father, but she held herself with the same quiet, confident power that the Alpha lying dead at her feet had. Robbie knew without a doubt that she was the one in charge. 

She looked at Robbie with her cold gaze and Robbie had to resist the urge to bare his neck to her. “All of them,” she repeated, eyes still on Robbie. 

“All of them except for him,” his father corrected. He readjusted Robbie in his arms, moving him to the other hip. “He has hunter’s blood in him. I’d like to train him. See what he can do.” 

Elijah reached out and gently tugged the cloth out of Robbie’s mouth. “Hello child.” 

Robbie didn’t speak. Quiet as a mouse.

“Your father says you have his hunters blood, but I know you have the blood of a sinner in you as well. The blood of a beast.” Her breath washed over Robbie’s face and he smelled blood and smoke. “Are you a beast as well? Have you given into the wolf?” 

Somehow he found his voice. “I haven’t shifted yet,” he said, because that must be what she was asking.

“Pray that you never do,” she said. “Because if that happens, I’ll strike you down myself. Understand?”

Robbie nodded, trembling in his father's arms.

She leaned forward and pressed a deceptively soft kiss against his forehead. “I’ll pray for you as well.”

And so the hunted became the hunter.

—-

Robbie’s father died before his seventh birthday during a hunt gone wrong. 

“He lived a life free of sin,” Elijah told him as she held him and stroked his hair. She smelled of wolf blood and smoke again. “Don’t cry, child. He’s resting peacefully in the Lord’s arms now.”

Robbie didn’t cry. He didn’t feel much of anything at all.

Elijah took him in as one of her own, providing him with food, shelter, and education. For the first decade, she locked him in a cage during every full moon and watched him, waiting for any signs that he would turn. She stopped that routine when the full moon during his sixteenth birthday passed and Robbie never shifted. 

When she unlocked his cage the following morning, she gave him a kiss on his forehead and said, “It’s time to begin your training.”

\----

Twenty years after Robbie’s world was turned upside down by his own father, Robbie’s life took a change again. 

Twenty years later, Robbie met the Bennetts.

\---

“Take me with you,” Robbie demanded, not the first time that day. “Eli, you know I’m a better shot than anyone here besides you.”

He heard some of the other hunters snapping denials their way, but Robbie only had eyes for Elijah. She didn’t respond to him right away, keeping her attention on the long silver blade she was sharpening. After a few strokes, she held the blade up to the light for inspection and gently tapped the tip of it with a manicured finger. She hummed, satisfied before she slid the blade into its holster next to her boot and finally, finally turned her attention to Robbie. 

“I don’t need to you to gather intel on the beasts that roam Green Creek Robbie,” she said. “I already know all I need to about them.”

“I’m not offering intel.” Robbie straightened, puffing out his chest and ignoring snickers from the hunters behind him. “I’m offering to fight for you.”

Elijah’s cool green gaze pierced through him. “Once you kill a wolf, you’ll forever have wolf’s blood on your scent. You won’t be able to do undercover operations for me anymore.” 

“These are the  _ Bennetts _ ,” Robbie insisted. “You’re going to need all the manpower you can get.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Elijah gave him a wry smile as she reached up to touch the scar on her eye. “Are you ready for your first hunt?”

“Yes,” Robbie said, and ignored the strange jump in his pulse that tried to make him into a liar. 

“Very well.” Elijah pulled out a pistol and checked the ammo inside. “Suit up and pick your weapons. Once you’re ready, you can start the prayer.”

\---

It was snowing the first time Robbie saw them. 

The wind raged, blowing snow all around the road in front of them, obstructing their line of sight to only a few feet ahead of them. The heat was blasting through the vents of the old crew-cab truck they were driving. Music played quietly in the background. Something with a steady and intense beat that the guy in the driver’s seat insisted pumped him up for the fight ahead. 

Robbie didn’t argue with him, but he didn’t need the music to get his adrenaline pumping. Sure, he’d seen wolves since he was taken from his mother’s pack, unshifted during the undercover assignments Elijah sent him on. But all he did was gather information and report back to Elijah until it was time to strike. She’d always pull him out before the beasts showed their true colors. 

This time though, he’d be in the thick of it when the fight went down. If he made it out of this, he’d forever tell the story of how he faced down the Bennett pack, and won. He was excited. He was terrified. 

“Wonder if Elijah will let me have the skin of a bitch when this is all through,” the man beside Robbie said. His name was Jack and, for reasons unknown to Robbie, he had a preference for killing female wolves. Robbie didn’t like him very much. “Hey, you should ask the boss if you can have it and then split it with me. You’re her favorite anyway.”

“I don’t care about trophies,” Robbie said, thinking of the wolf skin Elijah had placed over her shoulders the last time he saw her.

“You say that now, but you’ll feel differently once you’ve actually made your first kill.” Jack chuckles. “God, I remember my first one. She was a wild thing, and fast too. She almost killed me, if you’d believe it. Had to take one of her whelps hostage in order to get the drop on her. Made myself a nice new blanket and added some lining to my favorite boots with their pretty red fur.

The image of his mother’s body flashed behind his eyes. His stomach rolled. “Shut up,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Hey-”

“Now.” Elijah’s voice crackled through the radio sitting on the dash of the truck. Jack cursed but didn’t hesitate before he gunned it, driving head first toward the intersection. 

Robbie braced himself as the tow truck came into view, pressing back into his seat as they raced toward the unsuspecting passengers. Just before he threw his hands up to cover his face, Robbie caught sight of the driver of the tow truck. It was a man, appearing to be in his early forties. He was tan, with dark hair and brown eyes that bulged as he noticed the truck too late to do anything about it.They made eye contact and Robbie watched his lips form the words ‘Oh fuck no,’ right before the truck Robbie was in slammed into his. 

The crash was loud. The sound of metal grated on Robbie’s ears as he threw his hands over his eyes when the windshield broke. When he dropped his arms he saw that they had sent the tow truck spiraling into a diner on the corner of the intersection. 

Robbie wondered if the man he’d made eye contact with survived and then wondered why he cared. There was a truck behind the tow truck that swerved left and almost tipped to the side before it straightened itself out. Robbie could see the faint outline of two figures sitting inside. 

Jack laughed a bit maniacally as he put the truck into reverse. Robbie tightened his grip on his semiautomatic rifle, not taking his eyes off the figures inside the truck. 

“Attack,” Elijah’s voice sounded distant through the radio. Robbie knew it was meant for him, but for a moment he couldn’t move. 

“Why aren’t they shifting?” He hadn’t meant to ask the question out loud but Jack replied to him anyway. 

“Hell if I know,” he said, still slowly backing the truck away. He snorted when Robbie remained frozen beside him. “I knew you’d chicken out. Tried to tell Elijah before we left, but she said the lord had faith you,” he said nastily. “Give me the gun. I’ll do it.”

“I can do it,” Robbie said, jerking the gun closer to himself when Jack reached for it. 

“Then fucking do it.” Jack bypassed his gun and pulled the handle on Robbie’s door, opening it for him. He shoved at Robbie’s shoulder hard enough that he would have fallen out into the snow if he hadn’t had his seat belt on. Robbie shoved him back, undoing his seat belt by himself and stepping out of the truck. 

The two figures were still inside the other truck. Robbie could feel their gazes on him as he aimed the semiautomatic rifle at them, resting his elbows on the door to help hold its weight. His pulse throbbed wildly in his veins. 

He took a breath. Inside the truck he thought he saw something begin to glow. He pressed his finger down on the trigger as he exhaled, coating the side of the truck in bullet holes. Robbie had no idea of knowing if he hit the figures inside right away so he kept his finger down on the trigger even as the recoil threatened to shake him apart. 

The air around him shifted suddenly, vibrating with something that felt angry and hot, moments before the ground in front of the truck cracked right down the middle in a huge crater that was spreading, coming right for them. 

“Back, back, back!” Robbie yelled, running away from the truck in order to avoid the ground as it crumbled. 

He had to run all the way around to the edge of the woods near where the truck with the figures inside to completely avoid the destruction. He slid through the snow and ice, behind the large trunk of a tree and peered on the other side of it back toward the fight, trying to calm his breathing. Quiet as a mouse. 

The driver’s side door was open now. Robbie could see a man with tattoos all along his arms crouched in the snow behind it. He looked over to where the cab truck he’d been in was and saw it was face down in the giant crack in the ground. He could see Jack inside, slumped over the steering wheel. His eyes were lifeless, staring out at nothing. 

Robbie cursed under his breath and raised his gun, aiming it at the man on the ground. He’d definitely kill him this time. He took another breath and-

Elijah began to speak. A speech he’d heard her practicing several times before. He didn’t want to ruin it by killing anyone listening. It was a flimsy excuse, but his will to shoot someone was flimsier. Robbie lowered the gun and watched the scene play out. 

Elijah delivered her speech perfectly and Robbie felt nothing but pride as he watched her walk through the spotlight made by all the vehicles behind her, two feral wolves at her side. 

The man closest to Robbie held still during her speech, clutching at his head and groaning occasionally. It wasn’t until she released her wolves that he sprang into action, calling out at his friend to stay where he was as he stood, the tattoos along his arms glowing and moving. He ran toward the truck Jack was in and the wolves followed. 

Robbie frowned, the smarter move would have been to stay hidden and to not make such a bright, blaring target of himself. Unless- 

There was another figure still in the truck, hand pressed over his mouth as he watched the tattooed man fight and evade the wolves. He was protecting his friend, Robbie realized. His chest began to ache. Robbie had a clear shot on that friend for most of the fight that followed. He couldn’t bring himself to even lift his gun. 

Robbie saw the wolves then. One moment the tattooed man was alone and the next he was surrounded. Three of them, standing on either side of the tattooed man and behind him. The largest was the deepest shade of black Robbie had ever seen, the wolf on the opposite side of him was pure white, and the third wolf standing behind the man was an earthy brown. They were breathtaking. 

At one point, as the tattooed man lifted Elijah’s wolves into the air, the black wolf- who had ran over to the truck to help the man inside out- turned around and looked directly at Robbie with his glowing red eyes. 

There was so much anger and power behind those eyes that fear took over Robbie. In a move that he would forever be both ashamed of and grateful for in the years to come, Robbie dropped his gun into the snow and fled the fight. Ignoring the screams of his fellow hunters, the gunshots that followed, and the sounds of wolves howling as he ran deeper and deeper into the woods. 

\----

He ran until the sun began to cast a bright glow over the horizon. His legs were shaky, almost numb and the cold burned his lungs with each breath he took. 

He’d realized he was lost hours ago, but couldn’t do anything about it. He thought he turned around and started in the direction he came, but everything in the woods looked the same and he couldn’t be sure. His phone wasn’t working, cut off along with everyone else in Green Creek, but it was fine. He’d find Elijah again, regroup and everything would be-

A low growl, somewhere off to his right. 

Robbie’s head snapped over in the direction of the sound, his eyes scanning wildly through the treeline to try to find its source. A branch cracked behind him and Robbie twirled but found nothing. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and Robbie dropped to the ground just in time to avoid something large flying over him. 

He heard it crash into a tree with a yelp as he scrambled back on his feet, pulling his spare pistol out of his ankle holster, aiming it, and clicking the safety off as the wolf rose to its feet, shaking itself.

This close, the wolf was massive in size. Robbie knew its shoulders almost had to have matched his. This one didn’t look anything like the others Robbie saw back near the diner. It was dark grey, with specks of black and white that started on his face and went down to his shoulders. Its eyes were glowing orange as it stared at Robbie, lips pulled back to reveal many sharp teeth.

Robbie had the gun lined up to shoot between those two orange eyes. He took another breath to steady himself and nearly choked on the smell of grass and lakewater and sunshine. The gun lowered, an inch or so. 

The wolf saw his opportunity and he struck, crouching and leaping at Robbie while he was still processing the wonderfully strange scent in the air. The wolf landed on Robbie’s chest and he fell back, the pistol slipping between his fingertips and disappearing into the snow as Robbie hit the ground on his back. 

The wolf’s growls cut off as Robbie starred up at it in a daze. He cocked his head, eyes fading from burning orange to a beautiful, pale blue. He sniffed him then reared back and shot him a look filled with such confusion that Robbie couldn’t help laughing. The wolf’s ears perked up at the sound and his eyes narrowed at Robbie. 

He raised his paw and brought it down hard on the side of Robbie’s head, knocking him out cold. 

\-----

He came in and out of consciousness. One moment was blackness and the next he was gently swaying, pressed against something strong and warm. Blackness and then voices close by.

“You were supposed to stay at home!” A low voice growled somewhere off to his left. 

“I couldn’t help it,” this voice was closer, and came with the smell of grass and lakewater and sunshine. “I had to run. Check the territory.”

“Well what are we supposed to do with him?” another voice asked, gruff. “Mark get off my ass.  _ I’m fine _ .” 

“I saw him at the diner,” another person said in slow, rumbling tones.“He had to have a clear shot on Rico. He didn’t take it.”

“Let’s keep him close by,” the voice closest to Robbie insisted. “We can tie him up and press him for information about the other hunters.”

“What has gotten into you Kelly,” the first voice spoke up again. “These are hunters. They kill first and ask questions later. They deserve the same.” 

“I know, but-”

“Kelly’s right. He could be useful for information. No one is staying in the little house right now, so let’s keep him there. Gordo, adjust the wards to keep him from being a threat.”

The owner of the voice closest to Robbie let out a relieved sigh. “Thank you, Joe.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I still might kill him.”

\------

Robbie woke up to the sound of music floating around him. It was a gentle, easy way to wake up. It lured him into a false sense of security. 

“Is that Dinah Shore,” he muttered mostly to himself and raised his hand to scrub at his face. 

A strangely familiar voice answered him anyway. “Yes. She’s my mother’s favorite.”

Any remains of sleep rushed away from him as his memory came back from the night before. He scrambled up and to his feet, tripping over the blankets and crashing into the floor before he could get a look at his surroundings. 

Soft laughter came from somewhere behind him, breaking off into giggles as Robbie kicked at the blankets tangled around his legs. 

“Would you shut up?” 

“No.”

Robbie scowled over his shoulder toward the sound and stopped short when he spotted the man sitting in a chair with its back pressed against a door. He was handsome, with blond hair that gently curled around his eyes and cheeks dimpled by his smile. His eyes were a shade of pale blue that Robbie would recognize anywhere.

“You’re the wolf from last night,” Robbie said. The one he’d failed to kill. Elijah would be so disappointed in him if he lived long enough to make it back to her. The thought made his pulse skip and he knew the wolf heard it from the way he cocked his head, frowning at Robbie. 

“Where am I?” he asked, looking around to finally take in his surroundings. It appeared to be a decent sized bedroom. This surprised Robbie. From all the stories he’d heard about the wolves, he assumed they would have kept him in a den of some sort, like a cave. “Why am I here?”

“You’re in a house owned by the Bennett pack,” the man said, shifting forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he watched Robbie take in the bedroom. “And you’re here because my alphas decided you might be of more use to us alive than dead.”

Robbie’s attention snapped back to the man who was watching him with an infuriatingly calm air about him. “I’ll die before I give you anything on my people,” he snarled.

The man looked bored at Robbie’s claim and didn’t bother replying to him.

Infuriated, Robbie reached down to his ankle to try to find a weapon, fingers stuttering as they brushed against the pants he was wearing. The material was softer and thinner than the pants he’d pulled on before the fight. He tugged on his shirt, looking at the pale blue t-shirt that had replaced his kevlar vest. 

“You honestly didn’t expect us to let you keep your weapons, did you? Your clothes were soaked through from the cold too. If you got sick and died it would have defeated the purpose of us taking you.” The man rolled his eyes when Robbie continued to glare at him. “I assure you your virtue is still intact. Even if I was interested- which I’m not- I wouldn’t do anything to anyone that they didn’t want. I’m not like that.” His voice went quiet toward the end, serious. 

And strangely enough, Robbie believed him. Everything Elijah taught him about wolves implied that they were violent and vicious, near feral and awful toward humans in every way. But this wolf in front of him looked so devastated at the mere implication that he’d hurt Robbie, that Robbie’s suspicions bled away before they had a chance to fully form. 

Still though. He didn’t have to sound quite so passionate when he stated his lack of interest in Robbie. “I’m not your type, then?” he blurted before he could stop himself. 

“I don’t think anyone is my type. At least not in the way you’re talking about.” The man grinned at the look of confusion that must have crossed Robbie’s face. Robbie found himself nearly overwhelmed with the urge to press his thumb into the dimples as they made another appearance, but before Robbie could even consider acting on his confusing urges, the man stood and dragged his chair away from the door. “My alphas are here. I hope you’re ready to meet them.”

He swung the door open without giving Robbie a chance to reply. 


End file.
